How to clone the latest stable branch to a dir via github?

Question

I want to clone the latest stable version of WordPress from Github, via a shell script. It is simple to get the unstable master branch:

git clone git://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.git

But how can I get the highest numbered stable release via a script, not manually checking out the code. E.g., using deployment shell script or deployment tool such as Fabric.

Edit: I clarified the text to better indicate the intent that I meant how to do this from a script, not manually.

Answer 1

Clone from git and change to the WordPress directory

git clone git://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.git 
cd WordPress

Then list out the branches..

git branch -r 

This gives something like...

origin/1.5-branch   
origin/2.0-branch   
...
origin/3.4-branch  
origin/HEAD -> origin/master   
origin/master

Check out the branch you want...

git checkout 3.4-branch
Branch 3.4-branch set up to track remote branch 3.4-branch from origin.
Switched to a new branch '3.4-branch'

Answer 2

Here's what I actually ended up doing, which is included in a Fabric fabfile I have on Github:

git clone git://github.com/WordPress/WordPress.git .
git checkout $(git describe --tags $(git rev-list --tags --max-count=1))

It clones the repo like normal, then does some shell magic to find the latest tagged version of WordPress (Which is where the stable branches live.)

Answer 3

Can you try a git checkout master ?